"Ground-breaking" superlens sees actual information on Blue Ray DVD: study

Scientists have developed what they called a new "ground-breaking" superlens that sees, for the first time, the actual information on the surface of a Blue Ray DVD.

The semi-spherical superlens, made out of common nanobeads called titanium dioxide (TiO2), could find applications in medicine, and photonic and optoelectronic devices, said the study published this week in the U.S. journal Science Advances.

Led by Zengbo Wang at Bangor University, Britain, and Prof. Limin Wu at Fudan University, China, the team created minute droplet-like lens structures on the surface of a Blue Ray DVD using millions of TiO2 nanobeads.

The spheres break up the light beam, with each nanobead acting as individual torch-like minute beam to refract the light.

It's the very small size of each beam of light which illuminate the surface, extending the resolving ability of the microscope to record-breaking levels, Wang said.

Currently, physical laws of light make it impossible to view objects smaller than 200 nm -- the smallest size of bacteria, using a normal microscope alone, but the new superlens, with a super resolution of 45 nm, adds 5x magnification on top of existing microscopes.

"We've used high-index titanium dioxide nanoparticles as the building element of the lens. These nanoparticles are able to bend light to a higher degree than water," said Wang.

"To explain, when putting a spoon into a cup of this material, if it were possible, you'd see a larger bend where you spoon enters the material than you would looking at the same spoon in a glass of water."

The advantages of the technology is that the material, titanium dioxide, is cheap and readily available, and rather than buying a new microscope, the lenses are applied to the material to be viewed, rather than to the microscope.

Wang said the next challenge is to adapt the technology for use in biology and medicine, including the detection of germs and viruses not previously visible. Enditem